


Falling For Him

by nerdyandturdy (darweanie)



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, Awkward Oliver, F/M, First Meetings, Ice Skating, Jealous Oliver, Olicity Secret Santa 2016, as my secret santa said, broody oliver, happy oliver
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 09:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9174823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darweanie/pseuds/nerdyandturdy
Summary: When Oliver returned to Star City after finally getting his act together, he didn't really expect his little sister to drag him to an ice rink. He definitely didn't expect to be an absolute disaster at ice skating. He also didn't expect a familiar face to fall for him... literally.This is my Secret Santa gift to Sietske. Hope you guys enjoy!





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TV_addict_86](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TV_addict_86/gifts).



> A little late, but I haven't gotten around to posting this until now. Happy Holidays, everyone! And don't worry. I am definitely working on my Assassins Creed fic. I'm sorry for not updating. Life got in the way. The next chapter is all written, I just need to type it up and edit it. Anyway, enjoy this holiday fic in the mean time.

As much as Oliver Queen loves his sister, he also really hates her.

He’d just gotten back from finishing his final semester at Harvard (because of course, Robert Queen would be able to get his son back into a school he flunked out of at 19) and earned his business degree.

Now he is back in Star City, just in time for his little sister Thea, who isn’t so little anymore, to drag him around the city doing every possible holiday-themed activity they’ve missed doing over the past few years he was away. He never really came come home a lot, wanting to get away from his old life as an idiotic playboy for as long as he could.

Oliver is just glad that the Star City paparazzi has figured out that he’s left his playboy days behind him, becoming a “boring stick in the mud,” as Thea likes to say.

Today, Thea dragged the whole family out to the Star City ice rink, filled with families, couples, and friends either skating gracefully around the rink or failing miserably at the whole concept of skating.

As it turns out, Oliver Queen fits into the second category of ice skaters. He usually prides himself on his physique. Over the years, he’s used the gym as a place to work out his frustrations. Before he’d finally gotten his act together, sparked by a near-death experience with drunk driving, he’d been in decent shape. Now, he takes pride in how fit he is. Thea likes to comment that he could pick her up with a single finger and not break a sweat. When Oliver had returned, all the Star City tabloids had commented on the new way his clothes fit him. Those articles had creeped him out.

However, right now, Oliver is really hating his body. Usually, on normal ground, Oliver is very balanced. But now he feels like his muscles are getting in the way of his sense of balance. These skates Thea has forced him into have turned his legs into a wobbly mess.

“Honestly, what’s going on, Ollie? Surely all those hours at the gym should’ve taught you some sort of balance,” his sister teases. She’s been laughing at him ever since he stepped into the rink after her and nearly brought them both down.

Because his pride is already damaged by his inability to skate without hanging on to something or someone, Oliver is stuck with Thea, or else he’ll have to join all the kids and teens hanging on to the wall so they don’t fall.

Oliver still has some pride and he’d rather hang on to that.

“Seriously, Ollie. How do you not know how to skate? Even our parents know how.” Thea nods her head to their parents at the other side of the rink, who gracefully skate side by side.

Oliver sighs. He misses the days when his sister would chase him and Tommy around, hanging onto every word they said. Now she’s eighteen and has a snarky attitude Oliver could do without.

“Star City hasn’t had an ice rink in years. And it wasn’t my thing anyway. Still isn’t.”

“Still. You’d think a twenty-seven year old who’s lived on the east coast for a few years would have gone out to an ice rink with a few friends.”

“You know I don’t have any friends outside of Star City, Speedy.”

Thea’s smile drops slightly, now glancing at him with pity as they slowly make their way around the rink. “That’s kind of sad, Ollie.”

“Hey, everyone I met at Harvard was either out of my league”–he wobbles on his skates and hangs onto Thea tighter–“ or wanted my money. You’d be surprised how many people were after my money considering how”–he barely dodges a group of kids without falling over–“wealthy a lot of people are over there.”

“But you didn’t have to be so antisocial. You had to have met someone you liked.”

Oliver tries to let go of Thea a bit, but immediately regrets it. He holds on again. “Not really.”

“Come on, Ollie. Not even any girls?” Thea asks him while preventing him from falling on his ass again. “I haven’t seen you with anyone since Laurel.”

“Are you really asking me about my sex life?”

They narrowly dodge a couple trying to take a selfie while skating. “Ew, Ollie. I’m just worried that you’re going to die alone. Your little sister is probably getting more than you.”

“Ugh. I’d rather not know or even think about what you and Roy do.”

Oliver gains a little more confidence with his balance, so he lets go of Thea a little more, only keeping a hand lightly on her shoulder to make sure he maintains his balance. 

“Seriously, Ollie. You didn’t meet anyone?”

A flash of blonde pops into his mind. “...No.”

“Okay, that’s a lie.”

“No, it’s not.”

Thea then skates away from him, throwing off his balance. Luckily, Oliver somehow manages to stay upright. “What the hell, Thea?”

“If you’re not going to tell me, then you no longer have someone to help and your hopeless skating.”

“Speedy!”

But true to her nickname, she immediately skates away before he can even try to get to her.

Oliver groans in frustration. Thea left him roughly ten feet from the wall and with nothing and no one to lean on. He’s stranded, moving ever so slowly forward, as kids zip by him yelling, “Get out of the way, old man!”

Oliver moves a foot forward, ready to berate the kids (“I am not old!”) but immediately loses his balance. However, this time he doesn’t have Thea to help him. She’s probably made her way to the other side of the rink.

In order to save himself from falling on his face, he twists body around mid-fall. But in the process, he doesn’t realize a stranger trying to help him balance. Her hand is wrapped around his arms and it’s too late.

They both head towards the ground. Oliver is quick enough to twist them around so he lands on the ice instead of her.

He gets a mouthful of blonde hair. ...Familiar blonde hair.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry,” she apologizes as she lifts her head from his chest. Oliver immediately recognizes her. The girl he’d met at a bar in Boston and never got a chance to ask for her name, let alone her number. “I noticed you losing your balance and I was close enough to you that I thought I could catch you before you fell. But holy frack you’re big. But not  _ big _ big. Like muscle big. And oh my god, I need to shut up now. And get off you. I am so sorry.”

She scrambles off of him, getting onto her feet with a sort of clumsy grace Oliver didn’t think is possible. She fixes her glasses, which went askew when they fell, and dusts off the small pieces of ices on her clothes. And Oliver is completely enamored with her, just like he was three years ago.

The woman offers her hand once she’s gained her balance. “Do you need help getting up?”

Oliver blinks, caught a little off guard. Then he remembers he’s still on the ground. “Uh… yeah thanks,”

He gets on his knees, not bothered by getting them wet since his back already is. He looks back up at her. “Although, I’m not entirely sure if you’ll be able to able me up without falling again. I’m a bit helpless on these skates.”

Her mouth lifts into a smile. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”

And somehow, they managed to get him standing without falling over.

“Ollie!”

Oliver turns his head toward the direction the voice came from. It’s his sister skating towards them, their parents closely behind her. 

“Oliver, are you alright?” his father inquires.

“Uh yeah. Took a bit of a fall but I’m fine.”

“That looked kind of nasty. How did you manage to get Miss Smoak to go down with you?” Thea asks.

“Thea, I’ve told you a million times. If I get to call you Thea, then you get to call me Felicity,” the blonde says. “I’m only a few years older than you.”

Wait… what?

“And your brother, well I’m assuming he’s your brother, you and Mr. Queen did refer to him familiarly, I tried to help him from falling but I kind of just ended up on top of him,” she continues with a wince at the end.

But Oliver can’t really wrap his head around that fact that his family actually knows the woman he’d been looking for a year before giving up. How the hell do they know her?

“Oliver, did you hit your head?” His mother skates closer to him to check his head. “You look a little dazed.”

Because he’s been standing there, both surprised that he’s found the girl he’d met years ago and never saw again and that his family actually knew her.

Thea, though, seems to have caught on. She’s got that glint in her eyes and a smirk on her face that tells him she’s put two and two together, based on their conversation before he’d fallen on his ass.

Before she gets to say anything, however, he answers his mother. “No worries, Mom. I didn’t hit my head. Just, uh… concentration on my balanced since clearly, I have none.”

Oliver sports his signature charming smile, but his mother has none of it. She narrows her eyes at him.

“Hmm…” his mother hums before turning to the other blonde woman. “Miss Smoak, I do hope you’re okay.”

Her eyes widen a bit before she nods. “Oh, yes, Mrs. Queen. Your son kind of broke my fall.”

“Speaking of our son,” his father begins,” we were going to introduce you two at our annual Christmas gala, but it seems you’ve already found your way to each other.”

No kidding, Dad. Oliver spent a year trying to find her in Massachusetts, but with no results. He thought she’d try looking for him too, but it doesn’t seem like she even slightly remembers meeting Oliver. Or at least recognize him. It was a kind of poorly lit bar and he did have an atrocious haircut back then.

“Oh yes, Mr. Queen. I’m Felicity Smoak. I really wish we could’ve met under more graceful circumstances, but instead I kind of fell for you.” She winces and shakes her head. “ _ On _ you.”

Oliver breathes out a laugh. “Felicity Smoak? I’m Oliver Queen.”

“I know who you are, Mr. Queen. Obviously,” she says, gesturing to his family all taking in their interaction. His father stares at them with a look of amusement. His mother seems curious. His sister looks downright overjoyed.

“Please, Mr. Queen is my father. Call me Oliver.”

Felicity blushes right then. “Right… Oliver.”

Thea now looks like she is about to burst.

“I should get going. I came here with the Diggles”–that name sounds familiar–” and I was actually on my way to leave with them before this slightly embarrassing incident.”

Thea stops her there. “Oh, trust me, Felicity. This is only embarrassing for my dear older brother.”

“Thea…”

“Yes, big brother?” She flashes a sweet innocent smile at him. What a twerp. He just shakes his head at her.

“We should all probably start moving anyway. It seems people are a little annoyed at us all just standing in the middle of the rink,” his mother says with a slight stink eye at a group of skaters who had just passed by them. They all start skating with Oliver leaning on his sister once more. “We’ll be seeing you at the gala, Miss Smoak?”

“Of course, Mrs. Queen,” Felicity nods. “I’ll see you then, Mr. and Mrs. Queen. And it was nice to see you again, Thea. We should get coffee sometime.”

“Yeah, I would love that!” Thea then nudges his arm as a sly grin grows on her face. “I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other soon enough.”

Felicity scrunches her eyebrows together in confusion. Oliver finds the expression incredibly adorable. “What makes you say that?”

Thea glances between him and Felicity before shrugging and saying, “Just a hunch.”

Although her cheeks are already red from the chill of the ice rink, Felicity’s cheeks grow redder. “I will not look into that statement, but I will see you at the gala, Thea.” Then, she nods her head toward Oliver. “It was nice to finally meet you, Oliver.”

So she doesn’t recognize him. Oliver finds it a little disappointing. “Likewise.”

Then, Felicity skates toward the rink exit, where she meets with a family that includes QC’s Head of Security, John Diggle. That’s why that named sounded familiar.

Before he can make any further observations, though, Oliver gets distracted by a slap to the arm.

“Ollie, that was hilarious.”

He rolls his eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I see why you haven’t had a girlfriend since Laurel, now,” Thea comments. “You’ve lost your game.”

“Again, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“You’re totally into Felicity. I mean, she’s probably into you, too.”

Oliver perks up. “You think?”

Thea laughs. “I mean, she literally fell for you.”

He perks back down. “Speedy…”

“Hey, hey. I’m kidding. But seriously, what’s the deal?” she asks, dropping the annoying sister act. “You were acting kind of strange before we actually got you talking.”

Oliver shakes his head. “Speedy, I’d rather not.”

But then Thea looks up at him with those damn puppy dog eyes. “Please?”

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

With a cheeky grin, she replies, “Nope!”

Sighing, Oliver says, “I’ll tell you when we get home.”

“Awesome! I’ll let you out of here then.” She shoves him out of the exit. He glares at her after he catches himself from falling once again. “I’ll go get Mom and Dad so we can go now.”

“Speedy, no!”

But it’s too late. She’s already off.

* * *

“So you met her at a bar?”

Oliver and Thea now sit on top of his bed, Thea crisscrossed and Oliver with his legs out, discussing his very first meeting with Felicity Smoak.

He’d just finished up his first semester back at school and he was waiting for his finals grades. But he knew he blew it. School was never really his thing. He’d barely tried when he was younger, and even when he did try, he was barely passing.

So he decided to drown himself in his sorrows at a bar in Boston, one he’d heard about from one of his classmates. 

Oliver was nursing his third drink, but he wasn’t really feeling anything yet.

“You okay?”

He must have looked pretty miserable because a girl appeared next to him, seemingly concerned about his state. But he didn’t look up.

“I’m willing to bet you’re a college student.” He nods. “So you should be happy drinking since the semester is over. But you’re sad drinking. What’s up?”

“‘Sad drinking?’” He looked up, ready to dismiss the girl, but he couldn’t. When he set his eyes on the girl, Oliver honestly couldn’t think straight.

Up until that point, Oliver had been really into brunettes. From Helena to Samantha to Laurel (amongst other various girls). But this blonde girl, with her wide blue eyes, who had just shown up out of nowhere, immediately caught his attention.

Oliver had been planning to just ignore everyone around him and drink by himself, but he honestly couldn’t really push this girl away. There was just something about her.

So he tells her the truth. “I’m just worried about my grades, that’s all.”

Tommy would have been really disappointed with him. When they set their eyes on girls, they threw line after line at them to get them into their beds. But Oliver isn’t like that anymore.

Still, he could’ve at least tried to talk about something interesting instead of acting all depressed about school.

“I’m sure you did fine,” she reassured him. “This your first semester?”

“My first full semester, yeah.”

“Hmmm…” She seemed to consider him for a moment. “Well, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. What’s done is done. What I would look into is getting a new haircut because you look like– You know what, nevermind.”

Oliver was genuinely interested in what she was going to say. “I look like what?”

“Well, since you asked, you kind of look like one of those preppy school boys who end up being murderers or rapists. Not that you are one, it’s just… Not the best look for you, I guess.”

Except Oliver wasn’t offended at all. He liked that someone had told him what they really thought of him. He stopped “sad drinking” after that and spent a good hour just talking to her. He’d been so engrossed in their conversation that by the time she was whisked away by her friends, he realized he never even got her name.

He almost went back to sad drinking again. But he didn’t. Instead, he went back to his apartment to sleep it off and the next day, he got a haircut.

“Oh, so that’s why you suddenly got rid of that awful preppy look. Thank god for Felicity.”

“Hey!” Oliver takes offense to that. “Why didn’t you tell me it was awful back then?”

“I was little and wanted to take advantage of you! I couldn’t do that if I insulted you.”

“... You still take advantage of me>”

“Not the point. So you never met her again?”

“No. I knew she went to MIT because she told me, so I tried looking for her there since MIT and Harvard are so close, but I never found her,” Oliver explains. “She looked a lot younger than me and told me her Mom sent her a fake ID,” Thea’s eyes widen a little at that, “so I figured I’d probably run into her again at some point before I got my degree, but–”

“–I’m pretty sure Felicity graduated young in 2009–”

“Which explains why I never saw her again. I didn’t finish until three years after her.”

“Well, if you bothered to come home at all during those years, you would’ve already met her again. Dad recruited her right after college and then promoted her to VP of Technology a year later.”

“How was I supposed to know that, Thea? I didn’t even know her name!”

“Well, now you do, Ollie. And you know what you’re going to do?”

“What?”

“You’re going to ask her out at the Christmas gala.”

* * *

Oliver is genuinely nervous. And in over his head. Why did he let his little sister talk him into this? He doesn’t even know if Felicity, even likes him. They’ve only met twice, and she doesn’t even realize they’ve met before the ice rink incident.

He’s been fidgeting with his suit ever since he pulled it on. Tugging on his sleeves, tugging on his collar, messing with his tie. His mother nearly tied his hands together during the limo ride to the gala.

When Thea had convinced him to ask Felicity out (and that took nearly an hour of pestering), she then took it upon herself to relentlessly pound him with girl advice before he put his foot down. She’s now restricted to a thumbs up for support.

Although he’s nervous, Oliver is also a little excited. He’d looked for this girl for the better part of a year before giving up. Turns out, she’s been in his hometown the whole time. And he knows her name. Oliver has high hopes.

When the Queen family finally arrives at the gala, Oliver immediately starts looking for Felicity. But he can’t spot her.

“Relax, Ollie,” Thea says as she pats his arm. “The gala only just started. She’s probably on her way right now.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“Also, I’m really sorry for what I’m about to say.”

Oliver narrows his eyes are her. “What did you do?”

“Nothing, I swear,” she promises. “Mom and Dad want to you join them on their schmooze session.”

Oliver groans. “I’ve always hated this type of stuff.”

“Sorry, big bro. That’s what you get for being the oldest.”

His parents whisk him away to greet some of Queen Consolidated’s investors. For ten minutes he just nods at whatever whoever says. Even though he’s grown up from his playboy days, he still finds these sort of events, where his parents charm their way into the pockets of the rich, incredibly boring. He hasn’t been here fifteen minutes and he’s already falling asleep.

But Oliver’s been keeping an eye on the entrance, so he knows the exact moment when Felicity walks in. It gives him the wake-up call he needs.

She’s beautiful. Her hair is curled and pulled into some sort of updo. Her glasses are replaced by contacts (he assumes). Her casual ensemble she’d worn at the ice rink is replaced by a tight red dress that Oliver can’t even put into words. And if he did, it would probably be highly inappropriate.

He starts to feel nervous again. But he feels a slight nudge on his arm from his father standing beside him. He’s clearly noticed where Oliver’s attention has strayed. Oliver makes eye contact with his father, who gives him an encouraging nod and wink.

Flashing his dad a gratuitous smile, Oliver excuses himself from the group and heads toward Felicity. Thea catches his eyes and gives him her thumbs up. He, of course, rolls his eyes at her, still smiling nonetheless.

When he turns his head back to Felicity, however, his heart drops. Oliver turns just in time to see Felicity loop her arm around the arm of a tall, dark man with glasses, smiling up at him.

Oliver freezes, his body and confidence deflating. Of course, she has a boyfriend. She’s gorgeous and kind. Why did he not think of that? Thea notices the man too, and starts towards Oliver, getting ready to comfort him.

But Oliver really isn’t in the mood for it. He shakes his head at her and puts on a sad smile. He then returns to his parents for more mindless schmoozing. Anything to take his mind off Felicity.

* * *

An hour later of trying to avoid Felicity and her boyfriend, Oliver is forced into meeting with them.

He’d been trying to avoid them since they walked in, even resorting to dancing with both his sister and his mother, even though he hates dancing. When he’d danced with his sister, she’d tried to comfort him. “I’m so sorry, Ollie. I didn’t even know she was seeing someone.”

He’d just grunted, like the jealous caveman he is. Oliver honestly can’t believe how jealous he is. He’s known the woman for roughly and hour, give or take. And she doesn’t even know that most of that hour was spent with him.

Thea is right. He really has lost his touch with women.

He really wants to avoid confrontation with Felicity, or else he knows he’ll do something to screw up his chances, but as he is dancing with his mother, Oliver can’t slip away when his father pulls them from the dance floor toward Felicity and her… guy.

Oliver doesn’t know if he can be civilized.

“Miss Smoak, Mr. Holt! I’m so glad you could make it!” his mother greets Felicity and her boyfriend.

Hold on… his mother knows about him?

“Honey, I was just talking to these two about their upcoming project presentation,” his father explains. “They won’t tell me a thing!”

They work together? Isn’t that illegal or something? And his dad knew about the two of them! Why did his dad nudge him towards Felicity when he knew she had a boyfriend?

“I know you’re the CEO of the company, but you’ll have to wait two weeks,” Felicity says. “I assure you, Mr. and Mrs. Queen, you won’t be disappointed.”

“Oh, I’m sure of it. You two haven’t let us down, yet.” Robert says. “Oliver, I’d like you to meet Curtis Holt. He works very closely with Miss Smoak at QC.”

Yeah. He’s sure they work pretty closely.

“What was that, son?”

Oh shit. He didn’t mean to say that out loud. “I was just saying that they seem to work pretty closely.”

Hesitantly, Holts begins, “Uh, yes we do. It’s nice to finally meet you, Mr. Queen.”

Oliver doesn’t even try to correct him. He just grabs Holt’s hand a little too forcefully than he should have. To his credit, though, Holt manages to hide his wince and shake off the pain.

“So, Mr. Holt, how long have you and Felicity been together?” Oliver’s jealousy is starting to take control of his mouth. Should he be worried?

“By ‘together’ you mean ‘working together,’ right?” he asks. Oliver simply nods. They’re hiding their relationship, huh? “Roughly two years now, I think?”

Holt turns his head to Felicity for confirmation. “Yes, I think so. Right around the time I was promoted and you and Paul got your heads on straight. Well… not so straight.”

Everyone except Oliver laughs. Did he miss something?

“Speaking of Paul, where is he?” his mother inquires. “I’d figured he’d be on you arm tonight instead of Miss Smoak.”

Paul on his arm? What?

“He’s actually out of town at a cabin we rented for the holidays,” Holt explains. “I’d be out there with him now, but Felicity insisted I not leave her to the sharks.”

“Curtis, I’m sorry I had to pull you away from your husband, but you know how terrible I am at these types of events.”

Husband? … Oliver wants to smack himself in the face.

Robert comments, “Oh, Miss Smoak, I’m sure you’re not that bad.”

“Trust me, Mr. Queen. She is. I know both of us have a tendency to babble, but Felicity is on a whole other level.”

“Sometimes my brain to mouth filter doesn’t work. I apologize in advance.”

Robert chuckles. “No need. You’ve already apologized enough for five years at least.”

Oliver can’t believe it. Felicity’s so-called boyfriend isn’t even her boyfriend. Far from it, considering he seems to be happily married to a man named Paul. But Oliver can actually believe it. Because he is an idiot. An idiot who acts out of jealousy before he knows the full story.

Oliver feels a wave of self-loathing creeping up at him.

“Oliver, son, are you alright?” his father asks him, sounding slightly worried.

He looks up to find the group staring at him with concern.

“Oh, uh… sorry. I’m still adjusting to being back in Star City,” he comes up with. Oliver hopes he’s convincing enough.

His parents and Curtis seem to buy it. But Felicity doesn’t seem to. She tilts her head to the side and narrows her eyes just a bit as if observing him. It’s something Oliver finds incredibly attractive. But she doesn’t deserve a jealous idiot who nearly plotted ways to break her and Curtis up before he found out they aren’t actually together at all.

“Hopefully you’ll be adjusted after the holidays. Then you’ll be starting your work at QC.”

Right. Working… Fun. Just as much fun as he is having right now completely embarrassing himself in front of a woman he could really like. He should probably get out of there before he starts digging a deeper hole for himself.

Without him noticing, the conversation has turned into talking about his new shadowing position at QC. He’ll be shadowing all the heads of the company to see where he’ll best fit before Robert decides to retire. Even though he should probably stay for the conversation, Oliver just doesn’t have it in him. He thinks it’s probably best if he leaves before his mind can think of any more ways to give off the wrong impression.

“Excuse me, everyone. I need to head to the restroom, ” he says, and he leaves without much explanation. Oliver spins around and avoids any sort of eye contact.

* * *

 

Oliver really does go to the restroom. He splashes some water on his face and tries to think of a way to erase the past few hours.

Why couldn’t he have been a civilized human being? He has no right to Felicity. He shouldn’t have made assumptions. He had no right to act rude to Curtis, even if he was actually Felicity’s boyfriend. He should have tried to make conversation instead of becoming some sort of broody, jealous ass.

If Oliver ever tries to ask Felicity out now, she’ll definitely say no.

Ugh. He really needs to forget what happened. So Oliver leaves the restroom and heads straight to the bar, making sure neither his parents nor Felicity can spot him re-entering the ballroom.

Oliver makes his way to the bar, sits at a bar stool away from the rest of the guests, and orders a scotch, which he promptly downs before ordering another one.

Oliver is so caught up in his mind that he doesn’t notice someone settle on the stool next to him.

“Still, sad drinking, I see.”

His whole body freezes and his eyes widen. Turning his head, he realizes Felicity has sat down next to him. And more than that, he realizes what she’s said, and it completely throws him off. She orders a red wine while she waits for him to respond.

“You… you remember that?”

He must have a stupid surprised look on his face because Felicity laughs a little.

If Tommy were here instead of Chicago, he’d be saying, Geez. Get yourself together, Queen.

“Not until I spotted you over here,” Felicity explains. “I knew there was something familiar about you, though. It only took the sight of you slumped over at this bar to jog my memory.”

Oliver nods in acknowledgment. “It is how you first met me.”

“I do recall you drowning your sorrows in alcohol. But hey, you followed my advice about the haircut,” she says, gesturing you his hair. “You wanna tell me what’s up now?”

And just like that, Oliver doesn’t feel so broody anymore (though he’ll forever deny that he was brooding). Her familiar words are comforting and give him the confidence boost he needs.

“Well, there’s this girl…” he starts.

“Ah, sad drinking for girl problems. Not uncommon.”

Oliver chuckles and continues, “I met her a few years ago at a bar in Boston, but I never actually got her name until a few days ago, when I was dragged into an ice skating rink and made a fool of myself by dragging her with me when I fell on my ass.”

Oliver gauges her reaction as he speaks. Her eyebrows raise. Her eyes widen. And her mouth forms into a little ‘o’. He finds it oddly adorable, but he’s too nervous about her response to think about it.

“Oh.” She can’t seem to gather her words right away. She fidgets with her hands. Oliver has caught her completely off guard. Felicity starts gesturing wildly as she talks. “You’re uh… you’re talking about me, right? I mean, I didn’t want to assume that I was the only girl you’ve met at a bar, because you’re Oliver Queen, of course, you have. And maybe I wasn’t the only person you fell on or–”

He puts a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. “Felicity…”

She relaxes almost immediately under his touch. Making sure her eyes make contact with his, he confirms, “I was talking about you.”

Her cheeks turn a shade of red that almost matches her dress. “Usually, I have a lot to say. My brain likes to disconnect from my mouth and I could babble on and on about whatever. But right now, I don’t really know what to say.”

Oliver takes in a breath. Here’s his chance. 

“Say yes.”

Felicity’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. “Yes to what?”

“A date… with me.”

Her mouth forms that ‘o’ again.

“We could go out to dinner,” he suggests. “Or maybe you could help me try out this ‘happy drinking’ you keep talking about? You’re choice.”

That snaps her out of her stupor. Felicity smiles and starts giggling. “You really need to learn how to happy drink. It’s the best way to consume alcohol.”

They both laugh. “So, Felicity Smoak… Would you like to go out on a date with me?”

A bright smile grows on her face, so contagious that Oliver can’t help but smile, too.

“Yes.”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed your holidays! Let me know if you enjoyed this fic in the comments or on my tumblr, [nerdyandturdy](www.nerdyandturdy.tumblr.com).


End file.
